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Reports that Russian / US crew have had to make an emergency landing after booster failure upon launch.

It appears a safe landing has been made and there are no major injuries.

A two-man Russian-American crew has returned to Earth in their Soyuz capsule in an emergency landing following a problem with the booster rocket shortly after a launch bound for the International Space Station.

Russian media cited sources as saying the astronaut and cosmonaut were alive after the problem occurred following the on-schedule launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Search-and-rescue teams were headed to the area where the capsule was expected to come down for what a NASA TV announcer said was likely to be a "hard landing."

The capsule went into "ballistic descent mode" after the problem occurred, she said.

If we want to survive as a species we need to start dealing with the fact that space exloration is risky, dangerous and people will die. Seeing politicians turning it's back on space as soon as something minor happens makes me really sad. Especially if you compare it to casualties on road or literally any other casualty figure.

Is there any confirmation was LAS actually used? It should have been discarded by regular schedule by the time of the accident. From what we know it looks like 2nd stage didn't fire or stopped firing very soon. Reported incident (by Sputnik I think) is very bizzare. Supposedly one of 4 side boosters hit 2nd stage on separation... How, why? Soyuz has been flying for 50 years...

I mean, that's great and all but with the current state of roscosmos i would expect things to continue going downhill and who knows what might happen next.

Years later, in an interview with the American History Channel regarding the flight, Titov claimed that the crew's first action after the escape rocket fired was to deactivate the spacecraft's cockpit voice recorder because, as he put it, "We were swearing".[4]

Years later, in an interview with the American History Channel regarding the flight, Titov claimed that the crew's first action after the escape rocket fired was to deactivate the spacecraft's cockpit voice recorder because, as he put it, "We were swearing".[4]